Posts Tagged With: Sustainability

How The Natural Dimension Stone Sustainability Standard can Assist Green Building Projects

This course highlights how the dimension stone sustainability standard (ANSI/NSC 373) can assist projects with sustainability goals. The standard examines and verifies through a third party, numerous areas of stone production such as: water usage, custody and transportation, site and plant management, land reclamation, corporate governance, energy, waste, chemicals, worker health and safety and innovation credits. It also includes a companion Chain of Custody (COC) program, which ensures traceability of certified stone from the quarry to processing and throughout the supply chain and ultimately to their journeys end.

Today, building owners and designers are looking to minimize the energy and carbon footprint of new and existing buildings. LEED V4 and the Architecture 2030 Challenge are pushing the industry beyond energy efficiency features into on-site renewable energy generation. Join Taylor Brown and Devin Welch from Sun Tribe Solar, a Charlottesville-based solar energy company, as they discuss renewable trends and design best practices. Come learn more about solar photovoltaics, battery storage options, and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) from leaders in the field.

Taylor Brown co-founded Sun Tribe Solar to increase solar PV’s market share on the east coast and is now operating as the Technical Director. Before launching Sun Tribe, Brown worked for Siemens Energy North America. For the first five years with Siemens, Brown was a field project manager performing modernizations and upgrades on steam turbine generators ranging from 150 MW to 920 MW throughout the United States. Brown holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Devin Welch, co-founder, is also responsible for market strategy at Sun Tribe Solar. Passionate about sustainability, Welch has spent his career championing free market principles as a means to achieve positive change across a broad range of environmental issues, with a focus on finding and capitalizing upon the critical intersections of sustainable best practices and corporate self-interest. At Sun Tribe, Welch continues his work on market transformation by engaging with individuals, businesses, and governments to reimagine the way energy is produced while realizing tangible benefits for all stakeholders. As a member of the leadership team, he has helped Sun Tribe to become one of the fastest growing solar companies in Virginia. Welch is a published author and holds a B.S. in Management from Virginia Tech.

Water issues such as drought, infrastructure failure, and restrictions on use are things we have all gotten used to hearing but often don’t consider further. The truth is that globally our thirst for water is increasing at an alarming rate with no end in sight. The reality is that only 2.5% of the earth’s water is freshwater and half of that is tied up in glaciers and ice caps. Water reuse is a viable solution to the water issues facing us all. Understanding how to apply basic principles of water reuse planning and system application will ensure we have enough water for generations.

The march of technology has brought buildings that generate just as much power as they annually consume (Net Zero Energy) really close to the mainstream. A team of professionals are developing a roadmap for builders, owners, and designers to make it easier to take the leap to Zero.

Steve has long been deeply involved in advancing the building community’s understanding of stewardship, conservation, health, and wellness. For his efforts, he was awarded the distinction of LEED Fellow, by the Unites States Green Building Council in 2015. Recently, he has been active working with doctors and public health researchers to integrate evidence-based health strategies into the built environment.

What if all the water you used in your house was purified on site and you used it again? It is actually not all that different than a well and septic system, but it is a closed loop system relying on technology instead of an open one relying on the surrounding environment. In the wake of these rapid fire extreme weather events, perhaps it is time to start thinking about more resilient, decentralized systems for providing something as vital to survival as water.

Since the inception of the personal automobile, the way that communities are designed has changed considerably, so much so that many neighborhoods are arranged so that people only interact with each other as they pass in their cars. New Urbanism is a movement to undo this by designing walkable places where people and communities flourish; using the tools of cohousing, traditional neighborhood development, pocket neighborhoods and many others designers seek to make new places that are centered around people, not cars. By addressing more than just the built environment, Cohousing takes it a step further and intentionally seeks to rebuild the social fabric one neighborhood at a time.

Speaker: Peter Lazar has lived in the cohousing community “Shadowlake Village” in Blacksburg for many years and is an advocate for the movement on the national level with the Cohousing Association (http://www.cohousing.org). He is currently working on bringing the new 26 home “Emerson Commons” cohousing neighborhood in Crozet to life. Join us this month as Peter highlights the design, benefits, challenges and experiences of living and building neighborhoods centered around people.

Ever wonder what your LEED reviewer really wants you to know? Join two of GBCI’s most experienced LEED energy/HVAC Reviewers for an overview of the LEED v4 rating system changes and submittal tips.

As of October 31, 2016, all projects pursuing LEED Certification are required to register under the LEED v4 rating system. Is your project team ready for the LEED v4 EA and IEQ HVAC/energy related credits? This presentation will explore key changes between LEED v4 and LEED v2009 credits, and provide tips from experienced GBCI LEED Reviewers for documenting compliance with LEED BD+C and ID+C requirements in LEED v4 projects. Similarities and differences between rating systems will be explored including the new credit, Integrative Process. The presentation will be followed with a Q+A session.

Learning Objectives

Describe the major changes in the BD&C rating system from the v2009 version to the v4 version for energy/HVAC related credits.

State the ASHRAE Standards required by LEED v4 and the prerequisites and credits these Standards affect.

Crozet, Virginia is becoming a vibrant, bustling, livable and walkable center. Within walking distance of all the amenities that this growing town has to offer in the heart of an existing neighborhood is the possibility of yet another community that shifts the focus away from the personal automobile to personal interaction. Click here to see the full design.

If you want to live here, invest in the concept, or help make it a reality please contact us.

We hear a lot about industry leading net-zero energy and net-zero water schools happening in progressive communities around the globe, but we don’t hear as much about what’s happening with green schools here in the Mid-Atlantic. Local professionals will provide an update on net-zero energy and net-zero water schools in Virginia and Maryland. The interactive presentation will include a discussion of regional green school efforts and what challenges, and opportunities, lie ahead in the future.

This luncheon will be held at City Space, 100 5th St. NE, on the Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA. Doors open at 11:45 and the Seminar begins at 12:00. Luncheons are open to the public. Lunch is provided, attendance is free for GVGBC members and $10 for non members. Register Here

On January 10th, Dr. Matthew Trowbridge, Associate Professor in the UVA School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine and Director of the UVA-USGBC Green Health Partnership will discuss his work to simulate application of an integrative process to advance public health and well-being outcomes in the context of building design and construction. The Green Health Partnership seeks to answer the question “How might we establish a culture of health by creating healthy places, together? By applying green building principles of market transformation to promote healthy places, the partnership looks to better define the value proposition for health promotion within the built environment, develop tools for building and public health practitioners to create healthy places, and build technical capacity to apply health promotion tools. Work towards these goals includes the development of frameworks, such as a LEED v4 pilot credit – Integrated Process for Health Promotion, training and workshops, partnerships such as with Enterprise Green Communities and GreenStar Australia, and market development through engagement with real estate investors and GRESB.

Dr. Trowbridge will be joined by Julia Monteith, UVA’s Senior Land Use Planner and Andrea Trimble, UVA’s Sustainability Director, who will discuss the application of research work in relation to UVA’s on-Grounds planning, design, construction, and broader sustainability initiatives.

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This luncheon will be held at City Space, 100 5th St. NE, on the Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA. Doors open at 11:45 and the Seminar begins at 12:00. Luncheons are open to the public. Lunch is provided, attendance is free for GVGBC members and $10 for non members. Register Here